365.102 Easter Morning in Marfa

I would likely have something more interesting than what is pretty much nothing more than a lens flare test shot to share, but I spent the day touring the Chinati Foundation, and after a whole day of minimalist art, and after a whole day spent running on minimalist sleep, not to mention the it’s-my-birthday-so-I’m-doing-some-self-criticism-and-have-lots-to-criticize, I’m rather worn out, and doubt I will be doing much more shooting today.

I hope to get out to The Big Bend tomorrow, and if I wake up in the middle of the night again tonight, I’m going to go try to shoot some stars instead of just laying there, for sure. So maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to share some more interesting stuff.

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai. ISO100. 1/1250th (AP mode). f/8. Some rather extensive renovation via Aperture, but nothing too terribly out of bounds, I don’t think.

365.101 Somewhere North of Alpine, TX

Well, I spent the day driving to Marfa, TX, with momma where we’ll spend the next 4 days wandering and shooting around town and various parts of The Big Bend.

It had just finished raining—a decidedly rare event for this part of the country, where average yearly rainfall is in the 5″ range—and the windshield was bug free for the first time in many hours. I had been admiring the clouds for quite some time when we came over a hill, the shimmering on the wet road, the sun shining through the fluffy and rather friendly looking clouds that had completely overtaken the ginormous sky.

It was probably a bit dangerous, perhaps, but couldn’t resist popping off a few shots, and this is one of them, probably the best.

(FYI, I shot Marfa for a couple of hours after I arrived, but I’m too wiped out to share any just now. I’ll try to dole out a few every day, but I intend to spend as much time as possible shooting, wandering around, shooting, shooting, wandering around, drinking lots of water, shooting, and maybe, just maybe, shooting even more.)

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 AI. ISO100; 1/800th (AP Mode), f/11.

365.100 Self-Portrait in Macro Mode

In my packing excitement, I almost forgot about shooting a 365! Silly me!

So out came the Zomb-E Series and I set something up that I tried a few times but was previously unsuccessful at… I shot the my reflection, macro, in the front element(s) of an old mamiya/sekor 50mm f/2 (mounted on the sadly-destroyed-due-to-battery-acid-long-before-I-acquired-it-but-still-functional-without-any-metering mamiya/sekor 1000DTL).

I think this came out pretty well! Trippy as can be, and sort of outdated, but pretty well!

And I’m headed out to Big Bend early tomorrow morning, so there may be a dearth of posts and 365 updates from me over the next few days. But rest assured that I’ll be shooting and I’ll post all in a flood, like when I return!

D7000. Zomb-E Series. ISO100; 10 seconds; f/8.

365.99 This Tree is not a Toy

Well, I know I promised to shoot only the Zomb-E this week, but after 4 days, I realized that it’s not a total loss, or even a partial loss, really. The Zomb-E remains a strong performer, and a lens that will remain in my collection (and in use) for many years.

Plus, the two cheap lenses I ebayed came in yesterday and I couldn’t wait to play with them.

This image comes courtesy of the little-known Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5. I picked it up for less than $40, including shipping… Despite the seller’s assurances to the contrary, there’s a small chip in the front element and three spots of I-know-not-what, but am afraid is mold (though they don’t look like any of the pictures of lens mold that I found online) on the second element from the front. So I’ll probably be quarantining the lens after I finish testing.

Despite the chip and the probably-not-mold-but-what-else-could-it-be-? I’m fairly pleased with the lens’s performance. The out-of-camera saturation is a bit low in harsh light, but that’s to be expected. The contrast is decent, distortion no worse than I’ve seen in 21st century lenses, and bokeh is pleasant.

I’ll have more pictures and full writeup in the coming weeks. It would be sooner, but I’m heading off to Big Bend on Saturday, and will not be taking this lens with me, I don’t think.

Anyway. This shot is the result of playing around with a picture a bit in Aperture. It’s somewhat more tortured than my usual efforts, but not too outrageously.

D7000, Tokina AT-X 35-200mm f/3.5-4.5, zoomed to about 150ish. ISO100, 1/800th (AP mode), f/4.5

365.98 Attack of the Zomb-E Series IV

Went on a bit of a Zomb-E walk today… thought I nailed the shot, but failed and the light was gone by the time I figured it out. Oh well. This one is a bit interesting, maybe, and it almost comes close to illustrating nicely the depth of field and distance relationship.

D7000. Zomb-E Series. ISO800, 1/2500th (AP Mode), f/3.5.

365.97 Attack of the Zomb-E Series III

I had several ideas for a title for this one… a) the Trial; b) the Mob; c) When Zomb-E Series Attack; d) Attack of the Zomb-E Series III: the Reckoning; etc. But none of these felt right, so it just gets a generic title.

Does this remind anyone else of a long-lost Tim Burton movie?

Anyway… Fairly nasty weather in North TX today. I tried to get some pictures of birds and trees and nasty clouds, but it’s really hard to control the Zomb-E’s focal plane at distances greater than about 5 feet, so that was a bust. I’ll keep trying with this, as I can almost imagine making an entire art career out of this one broken lens…

Almost…

If I wanted to make a career out of my very pleasant and rather relaxing (most of the time) hobby, which I don’t.

And not that this picture would be one to put in the portfolio or anything either. Oh well.

D7000. Zomb-E Series. ISO100, 1/60th (AP mode, -2 EV (I have no idea how that happened…)), f/3.5.

365.96 Attack of the Zomb-E Series II “Straight from the Camera Beauty”

It’s Zomb-E Series week here at my 365 project! (if you’re confused, see yesterday’s post). Don’t be scared, it’s just a 75-150 that I broke running some macro tests on March 31, 2011.

I took the Zomb-E for a bit of a walk today, and when I got home, this came tumbling out of the camera. (Actually, it was helped along by Aperture’s default RAW processing engine, but still.)

Just goes to show: even a broken lens is right sometimes.

D7000. 75-150mm f/3.5 Zomb-E Series. ISO1600 (leftover from yesterday: will someone please tattoo RESET YOURSELF! on the insides of my eyelids?), 1/8000th (AP mode), f/3.5.